From a marketing standpoint, I put involvement in organizations as No. 10 on my top ten marketing list of best practices for developing business. And, which organizations and what your “involvement” consists of are very important.

Jaimie Field had post on her blog yesterday entitled “Rainmaking Recommendation #2 – Join and Join In” that speaks to those points. By that she means join the right organizations and be active. She suggests that you should be “consistently networking, conversing and developing relationships with the business people who are directly involved in the industry” or industries you are interested in representing. Also, she recommends asking clients what organizations they belong to.

Basically, you should belong to those organizations that are most likely to have the kinds of clients that you want to get business from. For some, such as criminal defense attorneys, bankruptcy, or other specialized niche practices, that is still the bar association where lawyers will refer work they do not handle. Those trying to obtain work directly from clients would be wise to seek out and join trade organizations made up of their target clients.

Joining the right organizations, and becoming a doer (vs. just a joiner) will certainly produce results.